Problems of the Past

[Park Kraken]

Victory Star Destroyer Decimator, near Vjun

He let his upper lip turn downwards into a sneer as he took in the sight of the pitiful pirate scum lined up against the far wall. Earlier they had been sniveling little cowards hiding in the bulwarks of their corvette. Now, after injections of truth serum and other drugs, the mostly male but with a few females intermixed pirates looked exhausted and full of energy at the same time. Hands cuffed behind their wrists, they stood almost at attention against the far wall of the interrogation room.

Between them and the admiral stood a line of stormtroopers with their rifles held at the ready. With the interrogators having filed out of the room with their holorecorders and pictures, there was but one final detail to be dealt with. Park briefly thought about verbally handing down a sentence, but none of them looked like they were paying any attention to their surroundings.

Instead, he merely nodded to the stormtrooper captain, before stepping out of the room. As the door closed behind him, the bright glow and harsh sound of a dozen discharing laser rifles leaked out into the hallway. Shaking his head, partly in amusement, partly in annoyance, he headed down the hallway towards the bridge.

He had a lot to think about.

[Park Kraken]

'The pirates had raided an Imperial flagged freighter out of Corellia, ferrying hyperdrive cores to Coruscant. They had an older model of a Bulk Action Transport as their primary ship. Early accounts of the battle state that the pirate vessel was well armed with turbolaser and ion cannons.'

He was almost to the bridge of the destroyer with these thoughts racing through his mind. A line of stormtroopers walked past him, ferrying the pirate captain and second in command to a waiting shuttle for transport to Coruscant.

'The Corusca Imperia was an armed bulk cruiser of the Liquidator class, but the pirate ship would have overwhelmed them in time. If not for the Carrack cruiser Badger shadowing the bulk cruiser, we would have lost a great deal in the pirate attack.'

Park looked up from the ground as he entered into the bridge of the Decimator. The captain of the vessel walked up to him and saluted smartly, before indicating to a monitor that showed the bodies of the pirate crew men being heaped up.

"What shall we do with them, my lord?" asked captain Nevil.

"Dispose of them as you would any other trash. Incinerate them," ordered Park harshly in a low voice.

"Of course sir. And what of the vessel?" Nevil followed up with another question, indicating the CR-90 Corvette floating one hundred meters in front of the Decimator, with one of the stormtrooper assault transports still anchored to one of her external docking ports.

"Have a prize crew of twenty five take the ship to the nearest planet. I've already summoned an anaylsis team from Kuat Drive Yards to have a look at her. Where are we at anyways?" ordered Park.

"We are near Vjun, admiral," replied the captain.

"Vjun eh? Quite a chase then that began in the inner-rim territories," commented Park. He took one last look at the corvette before retiring from the bridge for the night and headed towards his personal quarters.

[Park Kraken]

'But even the presence of the Badger was not enough to deal with them. As it turned out, the action freighter was carrying a squadron of old Y-wing starfighters. Two salvoes of proton torpedoes was enough to bring down the cruiser's shields, allowing the snubfighters to disable it enough with ion cannons for the transport to escape into hyperspace.'

"At this point, it could probably be inferred that the Rebellion was supplying these pirates with materiel. Of course, at the time the Badger's captain thought they were up against actual Rebels, hence the call for reinforcements," muttered Park as he entered his quarters.

Park dispelled his thoughts long enough to get into the refresher, and change from his uniform into his sleeping clothes, washing his face, and cleaning up in general. Coming out feeling refresh and newly exhausted, he laid down on his bunk and closed his eyes, although thoughts continued to race through his mind.

'The Lancer frigate Vicious arrived on the scene, and with the repaired Badger, took up the hunt again, using a tracking beacon planted on the freighter to track the pirate's movements. They caught up to the pirates less than a parsec away from here, and engaged them. The Lancer engaged the Y-wings, while the Carrack handled the Bulk action transport. If it hadn't been for the intervention of the corvette, things would have been over right then...'

With that final thought, Park drifted off into a deep sleep.

[Park Kraken]

Even in sleep, Park continued to remember the events of the past few days.

'The corvette went after the Vicious while the Bulk Action Transport and the starfighters went after the Carrack. The Carrack managed to disable the Bulk Action with her ion cannon batteries before a critical hit from a starfighter torpedo shut forced an emergency shut down of her primary reactor, meaning she had no power for her weapons. From then on the pirates focused their attention on the Lancer, and would have destroyed her, if not...'

At this point in the dream a smile slipped across Park's face as he snored in bed.

'For the apperance of the Decimator. From the Corellian Trade Spine we had come as fast as we could, and thanks to the advanced hyperdrive, managed to arrive on scene before anyone else. As it was the closest target, we destroyed the Bulk Action with a few turbolaser volleys, at which time the corvette and remaining starfighters fled into hyperspace. But..., the Vicious had deployed tracking beacons onto the corvette, and so it was tracked yet again...'

'When the Decimator again came out of hyperspace and started deployed TIE Interceptors, the corvette and starfighters were docked to one another repairing damage and getting organized. They had no chance. While the Interceptors soared ahead and destroyed the remaining Y-wings, the Decimator moved in for the kill on the corvette. Turbolasers disabled their shields in just one volley, while the ion cannons disabled their ship for capture. Following an assault by a single stormtrooper barge with a platoon of forty shock troopers, and the corvette is in our hands.'

With eight hours having passed while these throughts drifted through his head, Park came awake with the buzzing of his holoalarm. Slapping it off, he proceeded to get up and head into the shower. He had a lot of planning to do today.

[Park Kraken]

An idea came into his thoughts, an idea of how to solve the problems faced by the various fleet units suffered against the pirates.

'What if all of our problems were taken care by a single ship, or two. We wouldn't have to build new ships either, which would take time...'

The idea continued to grow as he finished dressing and headed out of his room and torwards the bridge.

'It wouldn't take a whole lot either. A few ship designers, a small team of them would do. As for what ship needs to be rebuilt...hmmm....'

The final light bulb went off in Park's head as he headed onto the bridge to listen to reports of what's happened in his absence.

"Admiral, sir. We have recieved word that our prize crew has safely transported the corvette to Vjun, and with the arrival of the KDY team, is now on their way to rejoin us," informed the captain of the Decimator.

"Very well, pull us out of hyperspace to await for the arrival of the prize crew. Once they are aboard, set a course for Kuat," ordered Park.

"Kuat? What about patrolling the convoy lanes?" asked the captain, confusion plastered on his face.

"I'll pull a few favors that are owed to me and get the star destroyer Cavalier to patrol that area of space until we get back," said Kraken, already heading to the comm console as the starlines reverted to their normal pinpricks of light outside the viewport.

'Yes, this plan has potential indeed...'



To be continued...